Back home

This week flew by, and I'm feeling it. 10 - 12 hours of work a day tattooing for the past 5 days has taken its toll on me. There wasn't much time to break either. The physical side effects are surely annoying since now I have some down time. My hands are intermittently numb and my lower back is having sciatica nerve pain. Awesome...

It also seems as if "baby brain" has kicked in right in time for this trip. I left my laptop at the security check point in Philly on the way out. On the way back, I discovered that my black, lining ink bottle had leaked ALL over my equipment and travel case and the shuttle driver who helped me pick it up. I ended up leaving my cell phone on the shuttle because I was in such a tizzy. Certainly this is a sign from up above that after the next trip up to Massachusetts at the end of June, I'm done with traveling for some time.

Now let's see if I can stick with that. My career in this industry just had it's 15 year anniversary, and I've been traveling since 1999. I deserve a break. Not to mention I'm pregnant with our second child. Nuff said...

Garden 2011

There's the front garden containing 7 heirloom tomatoes, one hybrid tomato, and four different heirloom hot peppers. I still have to put cages around the tomatoes so that they'll be able to flourish and grow to their maximum heights of 6 - 8 feet tall. Last year I planted too closely so hopefully this year will be more productive.

I had to transplant some bulbs, 5 herbs, and a large thyme bush to the back in a raised bed. I'm hoping that this move is successful ad the lettuce will cooperate in the herb bed. While I'm away in Fl, my husband is going to build another raised bed, 6 ft squared, so that I can plant the rest of the seedlings. We still have several varieties of squash, a couple of pumpkins, cucumbers, 3 basils, parsley, and melons.

What I would do for a piece of land to call our own. Although I'm trying to get the most use of what we live on now, it's going to take a lot of our dogs area from them. I guess we'll just have to walk them more!

High on fumes

Today at work we were breathing in polyurethane fumes all thee live long day. That's probably not the best thing to do, but what can I do?! Anywhow I got 5 hours of color in on this alien abduction piece. I'm pretty happy so far, but I can't wait to get in there again to add more and tighten it up.

I wonder if that is how all of the Christians will be evacuated that believe Judgement Day begins today?

After work, the fam and I went for a drive to pick up our local bounty. First stop was picking up our farm raised free range eggs at 7th Heaven Farm. We jumped out of the car to observe some sheep herding. Then we ventured to their friends place in the boonies to pick up our Organic seedling order. Their farm was pretty sweet. They kept an array of birds - guinea fowl, a variety of pheasants, chickens, geese, wild turkey, and the biggest, fluffiest domestic turkey we'd ever seen. He was puffing his feathers out and gobbling the whole time we were there. Then we stopped for an unsuccessful ice cream trip.

Now let the planning for the planting begin. I acquired way too many plants. We have about 7 heirloom tomato varieties which can grow 6 - 8 ft. We have one small hybrid that's small. Also we have a sampling of winter squashes, melons, basil, lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins, and hot peppers. My husband constructed a raised bed, but I have a feeling he'll be constructing another this year. I can't wait to get these in the ground. With the CSA farm share and our own garden, we should be able to avoid shopping in the market quite a bit.

Copious new tattoo pics

Don't hate on this tattoo just because it isn't Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, or Jimi Hendrix...

It's NKOTB from their last album that came out a few years ago. The young lady who wears this tattoo is now a cruise with them somewhere in the Caribbean. She is a die hard fan (obviously). We put on the outline in grey quick passes during one session. Then the shading on each portrait was done at each session, except we shaded Joey and Danny at the same time. She sat like a champ, too. I'm sure she would've been fine with two at a time, but she preferred it that way. This pic was after a touch up session that I usually offer to people after the tattoo is healed so that I can go back and tighten up the piece. I can't wait to see it healed. We'll be adding more to the rest of her back to complete it as one large, flowing piece.

This one was done over several sessions. The first was to get the stencil on. I used carbon stenciling and also freehanded some of the design on with pen since it was a partial cover up and add to triple XXX's. There is some thick black design hidden underneath the vines next to each side of the x's. Then we did the whole outline in one session. She came back 2 (or 3 I can't remember) to add color and viola!!

This pic was after the second session. On the first, we put on the stencil, freehanded some parts, and then tattooed in the outline. During the second session, we shaded the background and maple leaves. We have a little more outline to do on the inside arm, but I wanted to make sure he wanted a severed head before I put the time in drawing it.

This Mayan deity, the Quetzalcoatl, was tattooed in two sessions on this genteleman's back. First was a couple of hours outlining, and the second we shaded the whole piece in. He's also a champ in my book.

Allergies

I am MISERABLE right now. Yesterday I didn't feel great, but I still worked. Today I went in super early to draw and couldn't stop sneezing, coughing, nose running, and eyes itching. After much debate, I decided to reschedule my first appointment and play it by ear with the second. Then I called my Dr to see what meds I could take since and got the ok for Claritin. Meds ingested, but I'm still having these symptoms. My nose is raw and red.

I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to work tomorrow... This is crazy!

Last Guest Spots for awhile!!

There are two guest spots planned in the next couple of month's. You might want to jump in on these appointments if you want to get tattooed by me at these locations because there's no telling when I'll be back.

May 24 - 28: Now booking at Hart & Huntington Orlando Walk ins and appointments available. Please call (407) 373-0718 to book an appointment.

June 27- 30: Now booking at Good Mojo Tattoos in Beverly, MA at then end of June. Only a few slots left!! I'm not taking any new work unless I can't fill the spots with already started pieces. Old clients especially with ongoing deposits will be taken first. I can put you on my waiting list if you're a new client. Perhaps I'll be back up there in the end of the summer or fall, but there's no guarantee. Please email me at teganink@me.com if you want an appointment at Good Mojo.

A day to remember

Sunday night was truly a shock. After working a long day, I came home to waiting for the president's speech on the attack mission which killed Osama Bin Laden amongst 40 people. It couldn't help but sadden me to see people rejoicing in his death. Although he himself was a killer, hate breeds hate while love conquers all.

Is this an odd coincidence that Hitler was killed 66 years ago to date?

Several things bothered me. It seemed fishy to me that the body wasn't pictured such as has it had been in the past for other super villians such as Che Guevarra or Saddam Hussein. Also it was claimed that he would be buried in a traditional Muslim manner yet he was buried at see, a practice Muslim's don't follow. Not to mention the barbaric celebration of death was disheartening. Being a pacifist, I will never understand the desire to be violent towards others. Ever since I could remember as a young child, I have always been saddened by war.

Violence doesn't make sense to me especially since I grew up with a somewhat religious back ground in Christianity and then leaned towards Buddhism, and humanist beliefs. Every where I seemed to search for spiritual guidance, it always pointed to the practice of non violence.

Matthew 5:44 reads,
"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"

Ghandi is quoted, "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

Martin Luther King, Jr said, "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. ... Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!"
Albert Einstein

A day like that helps you forget how people in Alabama just lost their homes due to the wrath of nature and those who were spared still have no power and are suffering. Perhaps you forgot how much gas was per gallon while BP made a whopping $6,079,000,000 the first quarter if this year. Maybe you considered that the cuts in program's like WIC, Planned Parenthood, PBS, and program's that help the less fortunate was worth it in order to increase our military budget protect our "homeland peace". While terrorism is a horrible thing, so are the other main killer's of the America public - heart disease, cancer, diabetes, AIDS, etc. My hopes are for peace and that compassion will spread.

Email (not censored)

Got this email from my client yesterday:

"Just wanted to let you know I just took the bandage off and the tat looks fucking awesome (sorry for the language but i love it)

Brian

Sent from my iPhone"

I should put this and other emails like it in my testimonial section on my tattoo site. Things like this makes me smile. Thanks for all of your positive feedback.

Planning

While I learn to plan my work schedule in a more rational pace, other home projects pop up. We're planning on having a bigger and better garden than last year so we were looking into doing some raised beds in the back yard while keeping an herb garden in the small front plot. Despite the fact that we rent in the burbs', our land size is quite urban in nature.

The question is, "To build or not to build?" We could save some serious cash doing it this way. However, can we borrow the tools needed to build, and is my husband willing and able to tackle this task? I'm not putting my eggs in this part of the basket, although it's tempting to get it done asap. Give a girl a table saw, and you don't want to find out what happens with this clutz.

So while my Organic heirloom seedlings are growing at a local hobby gardener's farm, we must figure this situation out. Last year we planted late. We still had a good harvest although this year, all of our seeds are organic and not the GMO ones from the garden center. Yay! It's too bad that we have to do research to find the good stuff. We'll be able to harvest the seeds and also use them if we incline this year.

Wishing we had our own farm.... Animals, bees, fruits, and veggies.